In the run up to the launch of the new computing curriculum, as well as after it was phased in, there was a collective intake of breath from teachers up and down the country as they absorbed what it all meant.
For many teachers the notion of writing and debugging programs or explaining simple algorithms was well beyond their every-day experience and certainly not in their training.
Thankfully at the time there was already a string of free web based tools out there to use and a couple of these have proved really successful like Scratch, Kodu & Minecraft.
With all the free tools that some school enthusiasts started to champion it soon became apparent that while they were free there was little if any support or influence on how products developed – how could there be if the tool was free?
The result for some schools has been a bird’s nest of logins for different tools, varying user interfaces, unreliable work saving and patchy levels of school service. Factors like these undermine teacher confidence who just want it to work. Schools love saving money but when the cost is not having a reliable learning environment then its surely too high.
The mission at Blippit has been to get key elements of the computing curriculum under one roof and to help develop curious learners through authentic learning – even to the point of publishing project apps made with our App Maker (with the teacher’s approval) on our free app store, Planet Blippit.
Blippit IO, through its powerful and open-ended tools, give teachers the control they need to deliver a tailor made curriculum for their school while not compromising on promoting computational thinking, logical reasoning and (unexpectedly) writing in the wider curriculum.
To try Blippit IO for your school just visit us here and if you decide that Blippit IO would extend and serve your schools’ computing curriculum needs you can upgrade here. If you find that your school has been registered already, or are given a message that suggests this just contact us & we’ll sort it out for you.
If you have any questions or queries about Blippit IO please do call 01772 657 100 or email support@blippit.co.uk
John Bidder